How to Remove Element From Array in C++

1. Use std::to_array and std::remove Functions to Remove Element From an Array in C++
2. Use std::erase and std::remove Functions to Remove Element From an Array in C++

This article will explain several methods of how to remove an element from an array in C++.

Use std::to_array and std::remove Functions to Remove Element From an Array in C++

Arrays can be defined as fixed-length or dynamic in C++, and both of them need different methods for element removal. In this example, we consider the built-in C-style fixed arrays, since these are commonly manipulated by the numerical programs for efficiency.

We will declare an array of int and remove the element value of 2, which occurs twice in this array. std::remove is part of the algorithms library and it removes all instances of the given element in the specified range.

Although, at first, we convert the arr object to the std::array container using std::to_array function in order to safely use with std::remove method. The latter algorithm returns the iterator for the new end of the range, which means that the resulting array object still contains 10 elements, and we need to copy them to the new location. Since the original object was a C-style array, we allocate new dynamic memory for the eight-element int array and use the std::memmove function to copy the contents from the array object. Mind though, that we calculated the 8 value using the std::distance function.

#include <array>
#include <cstring>
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>

using std::array;
using std::cout;
using std::endl;
using std::remove;

int main() {
  int arr[10] = {1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10};
  int elem_to_remove = 2;

  cout << "| ";
  for (const auto &item : arr) {
    cout << item << " | ";
  }
  cout << endl;

  auto tmp = std::to_array(arr);
  auto len =
      std::distance(tmp.begin(), (tmp.begin(), tmp.end(), elem_to_remove));
  auto new_arr = new int[len];
  std::memmove(new_arr, tmp.data(), len * sizeof(int));

  cout << "| ";
  for (int i = 0; i < len; ++i) {
    cout << new_arr[i] << " | ";
  }
  cout << endl;

  delete[] new_arr;

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Output:

| 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |

Use std::erase and std::remove Functions to Remove Element From an Array in C++

Another scenario for this problem occurs when the given array is of type std::vector. This time, we have the dynamic array features, and it’s more flexible to use a built-in function for element manipulations.

In the following example code, we will utilize the erase-remove idiom and remove all occurrences of the given element in the range. Note that std::erase takes two iterators to denote the range for removal. Thus, it needs the return value from the std::remove algorithm to specify the starting point. Mind that, if we call only std::remove method the arr2 object will have elements as - {1, 1, 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 9, 10}.

#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <vector>

using std::cout;
using std::endl;
using std::remove;
using std::vector;

int main() {
  vector<int> arr2 = {1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10};
  int elem_to_remove = 2;

  cout << "| ";
  for (const auto &item : arr2) {
    cout << item << " | ";
  }
  cout << endl;

  arr2.erase(std::remove(arr2.begin(), arr2.end(), elem_to_remove), arr2.end());

  cout << "| ";
  for (const auto &item : arr2) {
    cout << item << " | ";
  }
  cout << endl;

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Output:

| 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |